It has annoyed me that all I see around here and the FFXI Job forums on this site are little piddly threads that suggest some decent ideas for improvement of the jobs in this game, but most of them simply erupt into flame wars or just become obsolete because people have lost faith in the strength of the player base in changing things in the game.

Due to this, I have spent some time compiling problems with every job and suggested change ideas from every forum, along with my own ideas, and have compiled them into this thread. I call it:

~~~ The Great Thread of Change ~~~

Creative, I know.

DISCLAIMER: I have levelled White Mage and Black Mage to 75 only, therefore I may have little or no experience with some of the jobs listed here. However, I have taken information from the other job forums, as well as contacted trusted and skilled people I know in the game who play these jobs, for suggestions.

By all means, PLEASE MAKE YOUR OWN SUGGESTIONSbecause I am not all-knowing (yet).

So anyways, here we go:

White Mage:White Mages are strong in endgame; what they lack is something to draw them to merit parties, as well as some form of MP recovery. SCH sub helps with the MP recovery aspect. Something I would consider as a change is to make Divine Veil a 1-2 minute recast separate JA that makes -na spells, as well as Enhancing Magic, area of effect, however the potency and duration of the Enhancing Magic will be reduced.

Black Mage:There are definitely problems with Black Mage. Even before ToAU came out, BLM was doomed because people realized that a WAR could use Rampage for ~700-800 damage, keep hitting for decent DoT while building up TP, then hit another Rampage in 30-45 seconds based on skill and gear. Black Mage could cast an Aga III spell for ~1300-1400 damage, then the BLM has to heal back the MP, which takes in the realm of 2-4 minutes based on gear. During this time, he has contributed nothing to help the group; while the WAR has been doing decent damage and spewing WS's out. Unfair, no? Obviously, several things would negate this, such as a form of MP recovery comparable to Convert or Refresh, reduced MP cost of large nukes, and a way to do decent damage over time (If you're even thinking of Meleeing here...), however the problem with these options is that BLM has many niches in the game. It is an excellent soloer (most notably in Sea areas), and is already very strong against Puddings, Wamouracampa, and similar monsters, and are particularly powerful in large groups. Implementing a drastic measure to make BLM more wanted in merit parties would entirely break their ability to play the aspects of the game they are strong at. So then, what are the options? MAB traits I-IV are a rather large issue. 20>4>4>4 just doesn't make sense. Maybe scale it to 8>10>12>14 as suggested by NotASock (I personally think it should be far higher than that). In addition, read his post,Kerberoz's post, and my post for good BLM ideas. Please post your thoughts with regards to this problem (You'll be seeing that line quite a bit throughout here.)

Red Mage:Red Mage is a very powerful job on its own, with the ability to specialize to fit roles based on skill and gear. Therefore, there is nothing really "wrong" with the job, but enhancements could be made to help in this specializing that very few RDM's take advantage of anymore. The idea I had was to introduce two Hasso/Seigan-esque JA's: One enhances melee accuracy while lowering magic accuracy, thus focusing more on the frontline aspect of RDM, and the other one enhances magic accuracy while lowering melee accuracy, thus making RDM's more useful in end-game and in casting while fighting more difficult mobs and HNM's.Edit: The latter ability may not work so well if there are two abilities that switch back and forth; because if there is any motivation to keep RDM's in the backline, they will stay there. Tier II Enspells that give status effects would be nice to counteract this mentality as well.

A note about the aforementioned Mage jobs: See this thread for an interesting discussion about implementing a form of Magic TP.

Paladin:Again, in my opinion a job that does not need much. (If you disagree with this, say so and why, along with an idea you might have to fix it. However, PLD is the only true Blood Tank in this game, and there definitely could be enhancements to make the job function better. A job trait that converts, say, 5% of damage taken to MP would make the job function much better and more fluidly in all situations. KojiroSoma and Jevilwolf below suggested two changes: A reduction in base damage dealt by the monster, and an upgrade to Defender. Combining both their ideas, changing the Defender ability so that it reduces base damage taken by a certain percentage would benefit Warrior for soloing, but Paladin more as its VIT and Defense would become exponentially more useful. Nihcru had some interesting ideas: 1.) Some sort of stoneskin or phalanx spells or defensive job traits, 2.) Lowering the level of Reprisal so it would serve a purpose in level-capped areas and actually be useful for lower levels, and 3.) Give Shell IV at 75.

Dark Knight:I know very little about DRK, so please post your ideas, DRK's out there, but a complaint I hear a lot about is enmity spikes just from meleeing, causing the party to not function as well. I am not entirely sure how to fix this, though. Enmity Down JA or JT? That has innate problems in itself, though (such as other jobs demanding it). It is also arguable that enmity maintenance takes skill as a DRK, but at the same time one must inevitably hinder its potential, which creates yet more conflicts. Again, post any ideas you might have to fix this problem, if you think it is one.Last Resort needs a fix. Increase duration to 90 instead of 30 seconds, remove the hate spike at the start, and/or consider Seriha's idea of converting all DEF and VIT into ATK and STR. In addition, the JA Haste cap of 35% is hindering the maximum potential of DRK's with fully merited Desperate Blows, Hasso, and the like. This ought to be changed.

Ranger:Again, I know little about this job, but from my observations the Distance/Accuracy nerf a while back seemed to kill the effectiveness of the job. A good idea I saw on the RNG forums (Note: Not my idea, not taking credit for it) was to make Sharpshot last 5 minutes (much like Defender), because Sharpshot makes the distance/ranged accuracy correlation null, while at the same time decreasing Melee accuracy, so as to not overpower the trait or make other jobs want to use it exclusively. A Ranged Attack Bonus would be useful as well. Auto-attack for Ranged Attack seems to be a well-liked idea. Along with that, making all forms of ammunition stackable in quivers or pouches would allow more available options for ranged attackers.

Ninja:The intention of Ninja was originally to do damage, but it can also tank very well, so both must be taken into account when updating/fixing issues with NIN. A complaint I hear from friends is that after a spell interruption, your character is frozen for 2-3 seconds, which in that time can end you. This should be fixed; I have been wondering about this myself, and it in theory makes no logical sense. Jubaku: Ni should be implemented. It's redundant for SE to complain about how overpowered the spell is if they're the one who controls how powerful the spell is... If they don't want it to be shockingly powerful, nerf it! Making Utsusemi: Ichi override Utsusemi: Ni wouldn't be a giant problem. According to Sequ and Bauran of Garuda, Parrying Expertise (similar to how PLD's get Shield Mastery) would greatly enhance the job and streamline playability. In addition, see Namakemono's post for a menagerie of NIN ideas to enhance the job. I say this again, I'm not an expert at NIN, so please post any problems you notice with the job or things you want fixed.

Beastmaster:Beastmaster is a lacking job on many levels involving multiplayer play. To enhance BST overall, the following ideas have been proposed: 1.) Make Snarl work on Charmed pets. 2.) Make Gauge function differently when you have a pet: it will give how much time is left in the charm via textual hints like "The monster seems happy to fight alongside you," "The monster is starting to become aggressive," "The monster is staring at you with hate..." Or... 3.) Give warnings like Sneak/Invisible on charmed pets. "The <pet> is starting to become aggressive..." "The <pet> is staring at you with hate..." "The <pet> is no longer charmed." The difference with these warnings, though, is that the stronger your pet, the quicker the warnings come and the less time you have to react. Or... 4.) Have the pet's name change from light blue to red the closer the pet goes to being uncharmed. (Feedmenow also suggests that instead of the above four measures, making Charm not claim a charmable monster if it fails would have a very beneficial impact, and nullify the need for any of the above changes.) Also, 5.) Consider having specialized pets use certain Sic TP moves only. i.e. Courier Carrie only uses Big Scissors, Amigo Sabotender uses 1000 Needles, etc. This would not apply to "<species>Familiar" jug pets or charmed pets. BayouGeorge mentioned another thread in this forum that outlines a problem with the BST pet AI: Apparently pets will automatically attack linked monsters. A JA to fix this (in other words, a JA that keeps a pet locked on a target), or a simple alteration of the AI to achieve this effect, would help the soloing capability of the job. Seriha suggested that more +CHR or pet augmentation gear is necessary to make BST function better, in particular +CHR backpieces (Access to Jester's Cape/+1 would solve this problem entirely).Feedmenow suggested letting AoE buffs and Samba effects affect jug pets, and I second this idea and believe it should be extended to pet Wyverns, Automatons, and Avatars as well.Rank A+ Axe skill should be added. Players should be able to zone with jug pets (It was brought to my attention that you could not do this before), and stat boosting food items that work with Reward would greatly enhance the job. (These three ideas suggested by Jamick in his post.) Post any other ideas you might have because I am not an expert at Beastmaster blah blah blah.

Summoner:Same problems as BST. It is generally considered a degraded job among others. Thus, I propose some changes to make the job more desirable overall and fix fundamental problems with the job. (insert "post your ideas" tagline here) Change 1: Put Blood Pacts on a Charge system, like SCH's Stratagems. Don't split them up into Rage vs. Ward. Change 2: Make AoE blood pacts have a wider freaking range. Change 3: Increase BP strength, particularly buff ones. I'm sick of having 1-2 dmg Enthunder-ga and Crimson Roar giving Attack+5. Change 4: Specialize the avatars. Make Titan a PLD with a Provoke BP. Ifrit: WAR (Highest attack and delay, occasionally has Double Attack), Ramuh: BLM (Weaker hits, but stronger magic), Leviathan: SAM (High damage with Store TP and Zanshin), Shiva: NIN (Hits twice with Subtle Blow and nice evasion), Garuda: THF (Hits light and fast, occasional Triple Attack), Carbuncle: Hits like a sword (Average all around), Fenrir: Higher attack/delay the closer it is to Full moon, lower attack/delay the closer it is to New moon, Diabolos: Higher attack/delay the closer it is to midnight, lower attack/delay the closer it is to noon. Automatic enspells wouldn't hurt to bolster the avatar's paltry damage. Change 5: Please do something about spirits! See Mellowy's post below for ideas. (Notice: I forgot entirely to mention Spirits when first writing this, and SMN is one of my highest jobs. That goes to show how utterly useless they are as of right now.) In my opinion, these changes will make Summoner a more wanted and generally accepted job across the board. See Mellowy's excellent post about the flaws and ways of fixing Summoner that goes into far more depth than I could ever dream going into.

Corsair:The job was intended to be a Damage dealer and support class hybrid, so a better end-game gun option would be preferable, and was talked about quite a bit on the COR forums. Paladin's Roll also needs revamping. An easier option of obtaining Steel Bullets or an alternative ammo, COR's most often used bullets, would be nice so that a COR doesn't have to shell out 10x the cash of a RNG to achieve the same damage numbers. Along the same lines, see AniRedMage's post about Hexagun considerations. In addition, see the Ranger note for Auto-Attack for ranged attack. Please post your thoughts with regards to COR (along with everything else mentioned here

Puppetmaster:For one, fix Tactical Processor. It's been bugged for a long time and nothing has been done. Second, the automaton AI has not been fixed, ever. I don't care if SE says 'we're doing it wrong.' We're doing it our way, and SE has to realize that they are catering to the player base; we are not simply bending to their will. That aside, PUP is generally lacking as far as end-game and merits, and are not preferred over other jobs in most cases. Higher H2H skill, as well as access to Asuran Fists would at least aid greatly in solving both of these problems. Overdrive is FAR too weak. I was considering something like a mini-Familiar: Prevents overload and enhances attachment and Maneuver effects for 15 minutes. In addition, DrChoas's post contained some possible methods to enhance the PUP AI and make Automatons overall more useful.

Blue Mage:In my opinion, the Blue Mage job does not need fixing or any large change in any way. What I wouldn't mind seeing, however, is a way to save Blue Magic spell "sets" so that the player does not have to spend huge amounts of time setting up all the spells they want. Macro lines for this, with the command /bluemagic equip "<spell>" would not hurt here. Azure Lore is too weak. Keep the same effect, just make it noticeably more potent. Maybe make it so spells have perfect, unquestionable accuracy? There are a number of non-clever, very simple ways to fix this. The Magic spells definitely need revamping. Possibly throw in a Magic Attack Bonus II spell combo trait? (Only if the Magic Attack Bonus I-IV scaling is fixed, see the BLM section above.) Speaking of magic spells, healing spells need to be usable on players outside your party. Being able to only throw fruit and veggies at party members simply makes no sense. Access to shields or worthwhile clubs to promote using subjobs other than NIN primarily, or to enhance the THF and other offensive subjobs that simply have an unused hand, would be nice.

Dancer:Again, not a job I know a lot about. From reading the DNC forums, though, one thing made itself obvious: DNC has end-game potential, especially with the tier 2 merits, but people tend to be ignoring them. Maybe the player base just needs to be more aware? VZX has several good ideas to improve Dancer's usage: Divine Waltz II (equivalent of Curing Waltz II) and Divine Waltz III (equivalent of Curing Waltz III-IV) should be implemented, Building Flourish should consume 2 Finishing Moves and reduce the timer to 5 seconds, whereas using it a second time would increase its strength to its normal 3 finishing move level. In addition, Healing Waltz needs to be reduced from 20 seconds to 10 seconds, and Curing Waltz III and IV should be separated into a "Waltzes II" category with a separate timer from Curing Waltzes I and II. Waltzes ought to affect players outside of your own party (After all, everyone sees you dance), and Samba effects need to work for pets and NPC's as well (see BST and SMN ideas). If you have any other ideas about DNC, post post post!

Scholar:Something should be done about the Helix spell formula in order to make SCH useful and wanted in HNM's. Otherwise, no real change should be made. SCH does NOT out-do White Mage or Black Mage, and I'm sick of hearing people complain about this. Just go and level all three, then tell me what you find instead of mindlessly complaining.

Thief:Steal and Mug could be more important. Aura Steal was a step in the right direction; now if only we could do it more often to make it halfway useful. Steal and Mug recast should be lowered for one. Mug ought to work with Aura Steal; after all, it is also a steal. Seitekifu suggests putting Steal on charges. More importantly, though, Thief should have A+ dagger skill. This has been suggested many times in this thread. SE's argument for Ninja not having A+ Katana skill is because of how often they attack with Dual Wield. Extending this logic to Thief, it can be assumed that SE did not give Thief A+ Dagger skill because of the low delay, high accuracy, and Triple Attack. However, that was then; the game now has evolved into high-paced endgame against monsters much higher level than originally created. This should be changed.

Warrior, Monk, Samurai, Dragoon:Nothing really I can find wrong with any of these jobs. Maybe if Dragoon had access to Healing Breath IV, they would be more appreciated in merit parties, but it's not really a problem that needs fixing. All of them are wanted in merit parties and end-game. If you disagree, say so! Edit: Both Warrior and Paladin would benefit from Defender reducing the base damage given by a monster by a certain percentage. See the Paladin section above. Another Edit: According to Xkallybhur, Kick Attacks need better animations, Footwork needs ... work (observe this post to see how/ideas), and Guard needs revamping as well.

Other Fixes:Three things that could be changed about mechanics: 1.) Make it so you can categorize gear into "sets" that you could quickly exchange back and forth between your Mog Locker, Safe, Storage and inventory. 2.) Increase our inventory space! With the number of jobs and new gear in the game, our inventories cannot take all the gear alone. 3.) Reduce or remove altogether the merit caps. With the number of new jobs in the game, it can be annoying to choose between certain skills and stats when meriting. 4.) Players should be able to store fewer than all 5 pieces of an armor set with the armor storage NPC's. See explanations for 1, 2, and 3 above. 5.) landael and Seriha suggest altering Wide Scan to make it so Remote Scan can be the default scan, then opt to alter the size or revert back to full scan with a single option. 6.) Dual Wield. What would make the most sense, and comply with previous game mechanics, is for all jobs to be able to wield two single-handed weapons, but get no delay reduction bonuses from them (save them only for NIN). It makes no sense that the game finds you physically unable to hold two single-handed weapons in each hand. 7.) Make it so that when you swap gear, anyone who targets you doesn't lose their target. 8.) AniRedMage has brought up a point I really agree with: Most gear in this game worth anything shows the sign of a powerful (Note: not good, powerful) linkshell, which in most cases means greed and corruption, particularly with regard to king HNM's. SE intended this game to be a team game, but it's impossible for this to happen when 1.) the teams are cruelly competing against one another (With the time that the game requires you to put into it, there is no such thing as friendly competition), and 2.) It's hard for team play to work when only one or two (Or none, yay drop rates!) people get benefits. This has to change. Augmenting the King system is fiercely being fought for as we speak, but in place of it AniRedMage suggests a series of solo battles or trials, Maat or Pulling the Strings style that would demonstrate an individual player's skill, not the strength of a group where individual players rarely get a chance to demonstrate skill. These would not be limited to fights; 'Trial'-style battles would also work here - for example, a White Mage might have to magically fortify/heal a small NPC army attempting a raid on a Beastman-controlled area, or a Thief might have to play hide and seek or race some NPC or group of NPC's through an entire zone, etc. The possibilities are endless, and fun, particularly when there is no loss involved (See Soapbox point #3 below), and the rewards would 1.) be very worthwhile and 2.) demonstrate a player's individual skill. (The same thing can be applied to 2-3 person groups as well.) 9.) This post contains some good base ideas for where to start fixing EXP zones and camps. I agree heartily with DosenMilch about 1/4 of the way down the page: We're level 75, we shouldn't have to beat up hummingbirds and imps the size of our head to get decent exp. If SE wants to implement new exp camps, they will have to be easy to get to, offer at least 15-20k/hr at level 75 and ~10k/hr at 50+, and not be easy to overcamp.

The SoapboxThese are just random ideas of mine and some others I have seen around. This portion of the thread breaks away from the rest in that these ideas are not meant to fix the game, but simply make it more fun. 1.) Inventory is a problem. In the "Other Fixes" section, ideas were listed about how to fix this problem, but an idea I have had for a long time would help fix it, and give a unique alternative. The Relic Gobbiebag is exactly what it sounds like. Bluffnix's ancient Goblin Family secret, passed down as a fable. It would require materials and rare gemstones and magically possessed jewels that would be very difficult to obtain, as well as 50 pieces of some x100 currency, but if you are able to complete this arduous task, you would benefit from an Endless gobbiebag. 2.) The Colosseum. I'm thinking four modes: --Ladder Mode, where you face off against a set number of fights in classic one-on-one style. These would be specialized to your job, so all jobs could take on the challenge. --Duel Mode, where you can fight face-to-face in uncapped, no-item-allowed duels against either a friend you sign up with in your party, or a random person. --Brawl Mode, where you fight in groups of two to six in uncapped, no-item-allowed matches. You would need to "book" fights against certain groups. --And finally, Pankration Duel mode. One player, level 75 uncapped, fights against your or your friend's Pankration monster raised in the Arena. --The reward for winning fights would be Colosseum Points (I know there are more creative names out there), which could be traded in for EXP scrolls, accessories, "enchantment" items (The temp items you can obtain in Nyzul and Besieged, except not "temp" and rare/ex so they could be used elsewhere in the world), and possibly others. 3.) There is a serious lack of really, really difficult challenges in the game for smaller groups that are not solely for fun. The Colosseum is a good remedy for this, but (and this would be very subjective) I have been considering for some time more ENM-style fights that cost only time and danger to enter, are incredibly dangerous, can attempt as many times as you want until you win (If you ever win), lose no exp, and give some drops (Would not be really super incredible drops, but enough to justify it). Something I have noticed is that now that the EXP loss of death has been removed, CoP mission arenas are actually, dare I say it, fun. With nothing to lose, you can go all out and use real skill, or brute force, or whatever the hell you want, against the enemy and just have fun doing so with friends. The fights I am thinking of would take incredible teamwork, skill, and power, with nothing but time to lose. 4.) The ability to set "Vanity" gear, or customize the looks of your current gear, is something the player base has been asking for for some time, and ought to be implemented.

I'll add more as I think of more.

There you have it. As I have said already several dozen times, post your own ideas about problems in the game and ways to fix them! If you have a great game-changing idea about anything, say so! If you think I'm an idiot and you want to prove me wrong about something, say so! And no matter what, enjoy playing FFXI. It's a game, so have fun. Don't take it too seriously.

For the RDM Hasso/Seigan ability you're talking about, it should be more along the lines of something like this:

Blade Focus: Magic Accuracy is tied to Melee Accuracy (similar to BLU). Make it enough of a bonus that on anything we can melee it would be pointless to use staves.

Crimson Veil: Allows us to bypass special resistances based on our Enfeebling skill (Enfeebling magic only). Grants top priority to our enfeebles (Paralyze will overwrite all other Paralyze effects).

Basically, you want the frontline JA to encourage frontline in small-man situations (6 or less), and to be pointless for big stuff, while the backline JA is good for big stuff, but grants no benefit for small stuff; otherwise it will just be another reason to shove us in the back with staves.

So you're saying that you find the addition of a 10% haste to NIN not overpowered in any way, a job that is already able to deal large amounts of damage and take none in return keeping shadows up back to back without any problems, absorbing any attack aimed at them already. A job that already can solo VT-IT+ with /DNC without any problems, and even HNM's such as Serket? You even wish to make it STRONGER by adding additional Accuracy and Attack? To top things off you wish to make any person able to tank on it by letting Ichi overwrite Ni, the one thing that still took minimal skill.

Yet you feel a Paladin that takes the same amount of large number damage any other melee takes without offering anything too special such as large number Damage in return opposed to Damage Dealing jobs "not needing fixing"? Taking damage in this game is flawd. The calculation is bogus because base damage is something we cannot guard against in any way outside of shadows. A physical damage taken reduction for paladin is the least of things that needs to happen.

There is just no comparison between a borderline-overpowered job such as NIN, and a sword wielding warrior with white magic such as Paladin.

There needs to be a lot of fixing to other jobs including Paladin, and hell, even Red Mage, before NIN even deserves a minor buff. And i mean a minor buff, not something like Haste/ATK/ACC for free with easier game mechanics. Minor buff in the realm of... Monomi: Ni.

...draining with sambas is kind of like you smack the thing and as you smack blood flies out... normally the blood would just you know fall and be red an what-not, but, with the samba your all whacked out and decide to drink the blood as it flys out. thus not adding MORE damage just taking more advantage of your damage. at least thats my take on it.

At this point, A+ katana for Ninja would not be game breaking when it is hard to hit the acc cap on merit mobs without food or madrigals. Another thing would be more job abilities. My creativity fails me at the moment but I'd like more things for Nin to offer me than Mijin or lolSange.

...draining with sambas is kind of like you smack the thing and as you smack blood flies out... normally the blood would just you know fall and be red an what-not, but, with the samba your all whacked out and decide to drink the blood as it flys out. thus not adding MORE damage just taking more advantage of your damage. at least thats my take on it.

Ninja:The intention of Ninja was originally to do damage, but it can also tank very well, so both must be taken into account when updating/fixing issues with NIN. A complaint I hear from friends is that after a spell interruption, your character is frozen for 2-3 seconds, which in that time can end you. This should be fixed; I have been wondering about this myself, and it in theory makes no logical sense. To boost the original damage capabilities of NIN, I have been considering a new Ninjutsu: Shinto: Ichi (Lv. 65), Gives a 10% Haste and Accuracy/Attack boost effect, but lowers enmity given to the monster. This would enhance soloing capabilities and damage-dealing capabilities in groups, increasing NIN's effectiveness in end-game. Making it so Utsusemi: Ichi overrides Utsusemi: Ni wouldn't be a giant problem, either.I say this again, I'm not an expert at NIN, so please post any problems you notice with the job or things you want fixed.

I think NIN need something along the lines of Shield Mastery, in the sense of lowering interruption rate, or maybe instead of not getting interrupted, we can swing while casting. I strongly agree with letting ICHI overwrite NI, at least as a main job.

To KojiroSoma: I'm glad a 75 PLD can give their viewpoint on the tanking jobs; I was somewhat blind in this regard. Now that you put it like that, I realize that PLD does need more change than NIN. I was kind of thinking already that my NIN buffs were too powerful, and I did not know the PLD job well enough to suggest changes for it. Perhaps I can combine yours and Jevilwolf's idea: the Defender job ability should lower the base damage rating by a certain percentage. It would be helpful for solo WAR's, but more helpful to PLD's who have enough VIT and defense to lower the additional damage taken even further.

To Jevilwolf and Multidude: I don't think either NIN or THF should have their weapon A+ rank, because the main intention of both jobs are not straight-up damage dealing, or at least damage through the use of physically hitting alone. I will agree that THF would make better use of it, but with their proficency in evasion, spike damage (with Assassin, weapon skill level is even less of an issue), and enmity control in a party, it should not be a major priority. It would be more of a luxury than a necessity.

To MasxOwner: The closest thing would be parrying, and PLD definitely would benefit more from a spell interruption down job ability than NIN. However, I feel that both are again luxuries and not necessities. Nice idea, none the less.

#10REDACTED,
Posted:Jan 15 2009 at 2:04 PM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) I think that PLD needs some help. I find it very hard to hold hate against a couple sams and a drg. Maybe reducing the recast on JAs such as Sentinel and Rampart would really help. Maybe have a JT that "enhances the effect of Provoke", so that you get more hate. Flash I like that how it is. But I think reducing the downtime on the JAs would really help.

To Odeken: Reducing downtime on JA's is a good idea, but that might make PLD too powerful. As KojiroSoma said earlier, the problem lies within not being able to mitigate base damage given. This is why I altered Defender above. About BST, I don't think that BST needs a nerf right now. Even if it makes the job more exciting, it has to be playable on many scales first, and right now it seems to be useful in soloing and in very situational end-game. And I agree that the MPK patch needs changing, but that's too complicated to get into now.

I only have two suggestions for THF: Extend Perfect Dodge to members in range, and don't change a thing otherwise. Every other job's two hour can be used to benefit the group by either killing the monster quicker or keeping the party alive. Perfect Dodge is the only one that benefits the user only. Invincible will still be more useful with its hate spike.

And maybe Retreat for the hell of it: Flee effect for all members within range, shared timer with Flee and recast of 10~15 minutes. These ideas are to make THF a bit more party-friendly without killing the original tactical uses that THF can already find for PD and Flee.

Edited, Jan 15th 2009 5:31pm by Seitekifu

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Pikko wrote:

I'm curious as to what would lead someone to think they're playing FFXI with Elton John?

Both ideas are good, though they are both slightly overpowering. Perfect Dodge-ga and Fleega could both be exploited in a number of situations you did not mention; thus might I suggest the following addenda:

Perfect Dodge-ga: Your idea would be nice, but I highly doubt SE would implement it. It would be too powerful for a 2hr (especially if multiple members of your group are fighting different monsters; in which case it would blow Invincible out of the water). Thief is a very self-oriented job anyway. I will agree with you, though, that is definitely a lacking 2hr when compared to Invincible; but then again, so are many others. This has got me thinking about 2hrs... It's definitely a consideration to make, but straight up Perfect dodge-ga would be overpowering the job.

Retreat: While it is a very fun idea, it too is overpowered in that it can be exploited (I'm mainly thinking about Nyzul Isle and Salvage here). It would make people lazy and consider the job almost a requirement to have in places like those; that would tip the scale of usefulness too far.

Beastmaster:3.) Give warnings like Sneak/Invisible on charmed pets. "The <pet> is starting to become aggressive..." "The <pet> is staring at you with hate..." "The <pet> is no longer charmed." The difference with these warnings, though, is that the stronger your pet, the quicker the warnings come and the less time you have to react.

Blue Mage:In my opinion, the Blue Mage job does not need fixing or any large change in any way. What I wouldn't mind seeing, however, is a way to save Blue Magic spell "sets" so that the player does not have to spend huge amounts of time setting up all the spells they want. Macro lines for this, with the command /bluemagic equip "<spell>" would not hurt here.

Beastmaster:

Agreed on the warnings. Would be very useful.

As noted on another current thread, A job trait to make your pet stay focused on it's current target (ignoring links) would aslo be a HUGE help.

Blue Mage:

I understand why set points are limited, but we really could use a few more.

Also, Azure Lore needs to be more potent. As things stand now half the times I use it I can't tell that it did anything at all.

And of course there's still a few mob families we don't learn anything from.

...draining with sambas is kind of like you smack the thing and as you smack blood flies out... normally the blood would just you know fall and be red an what-not, but, with the samba your all whacked out and decide to drink the blood as it flys out. thus not adding MORE damage just taking more advantage of your damage. at least thats my take on it.

An Azure Lore boost would be nice; added that and your BST idea (I just found the thread; it was right below this one, lol >.>)

I think adding more BLU spell points would be very risky. If we know we can get more points simply by asking for them, then the BLU's are going to whine and whine for more points. Asking for more spells is risky for the same reason.

And:

I wrote:

To Jevilwolf and Multidude: I don't think either NIN or THF should have their weapon A+ rank, because the main intention of both jobs are not straight-up damage dealing, or at least damage through the use of physically hitting alone. I will agree that THF would make better use of it, but with their proficency in evasion, spike damage (with Assassin, weapon skill level is even less of an issue), and enmity control in a party, it should not be a major priority. It would be more of a luxury than a necessity.

Corsair: The job was intended to be a Damage dealer and support class hybrid, so a better end-game gun option would be preferable, and was talked about quite a bit on the COR forums. Otherwise, I do not know COR's level of effectiveness in merit parties or end-game, so please post your thoughts with regards to COR (along with everything else mentioned here. Edit: It would be nice if Wild Card (the 2hr) did not give a reward based on luck.

The way SE has been designing Hexaguns, they'll never come close to a Martial Gun. A quick glance at when they added Cassandras shows even after a while to see what was happening, they're still clueless. It might be doubtful that any gun ever equals, let alone eclipses, Martial Gun. The 100-300k gun even eats Death Penalty alive, spits it out, and uses it as bait.

As far as Wild Card.. Corsair is largely based on luck, I'd rather not have that taken away from the job.. At the very least, you can count on it to reset all non-2 hour JA's.

My advise to SE on COR: Understand how we're dealing damage, and with that, if you're ever going to make it more advantageous to shoot for TP (whether it by one gun, or overall), you need to make our premier bullets a reasonable thing to obtain. Spending 500k to get your gun to function for a few hours isn't reasonable. And even if you had endless sums of gil, the bullet supply available renders this notfeasibleanyway. (ffxiah links)

I think it be ok to give blu 2-5 extra points, but they should be on an armor piece attached.

Example what about a blue ring lvl 70. It adds 2 blu points and 15 MP. Unequip the ring and lose the 2 points. It be same if you had assimilation and deleveled.

Or they can always put a bomering lvl 70+ + 2 points adds 1-2 points to blue mage. Or even a shield that does that. maybe 1 point.

If it was on gear, it'd hafta be a ranged weapon. Armor just gets swapped too often, and even if they put in a macro command (/equip blue "Spell name" <me>) the 1 minute wait to use ANY spell every time would keep it from being useful.

loyfriend wrote:

Blu dont need more set points. SE gave us ways to save points: Hence Body armor that add refresh. That saves blues 9-10 points. One can sub sch and get conserve mp "Saves 5 points. Even a person subbing ninja with unlimited blink has little use for zephery mantle so conserve mp JA not 100% needed.

Body Armor that adds refresh: sacrifice useful stats, or lose refresh every time you need to cast something. Refresh interuptions not much of a loss, I suppose, as fast as most blue spells cast. On the other hand, The 2 best spells for auto-refresh are also worth setting on thier own merits: Actinic Burst for Flash, Plasma Charge for +str and +dex.

Subbing sch for conserve mp costs you dual-wield, str, eva, and attack. The added mp and conserve mp doesn't really make up for all that.

Warrior, Monk, Thief, Samurai, Dragoon: Nothing really I can find wrong with any of these jobs. Maybe if Dragoon had access to Healing Breath IV, they would be more appreciated in merit parties, but it's not really a problem that needs fixing. All of them are wanted in merit parties and end-game. If you disagree, say so! Update: Both Warrior and Paladin would benefit from Defender reducing the base damage given by a monster by a certain percentage. See the Paladin section above.

I'm defaulted and nobody cares but. Healing Breath is fine, a DRG with Relic/Saurian Helm and all the Wyvern HP+ Gear can hit about 420 on a Healing Breath. With the Exp buffer it goes up to 520-540ish. Also invites are fine for me as is, what really should be worked on is Gimpulse drive but thats all I can hope for.

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Main: DRG75/RNG75/DRK75/WAR75/SAM75/MNK65

Quote:

The best way to farm ***** is as Thf or with /thf. You start off sneaking up behind the **** and sneak attack it, sneak attack makes sure you end up hitting the **** from behind as hard as you can.

After that just start whacking the ****. Be careful though, the more you whack the **** the more likely to hit you with one of its nasty attacks. The last thing you want while you're face to face with a big **** is to end up

To Seriha: RDM really is not designed to be on the frontlines in end-game. The more offensive front-line JA is intended for smaller groups.

About the increased Blue Magic points and more Blue Magic spells available to the player base and the ability to cast any Blue Magic spell and the like... Don't forget what the purpose of this thread is. It's not to get little things that boost the job beyond levels we need. This is to fix problems and streamline the game over anything. Adding more BLU spells would just make the job more powerful without reason; and in my opinion BLU is one of the strongest jobs in the game.